Monday, April 16, 2007

(CT Blogger's note - I wrote this over the weekend and was planning on posting on the 19th. In light of today's tragic events, it seems more appropriate to post today, unedited and unproofed.)

There are three tragic events which have anniversaries over the next few days that have deep CT roots. The 19th marks the 14th anniversary of the Branch Davidian tragedy in Waco and the 12th anniversary of the Murrah Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma City. The 20th marks the 8th anniversary of the Columbine massacre. The first two events, Waco and Oklahoma City, are directly linked. Columbine is not, at least it appears to not be linked if you only look at the surface. There is a conspiracy theory that runs underneath all three events and this theory has played a major part in a major sea change within the CT world.

There are two separate conspiracy theories that have swirled around the Waco event. The first is mainly adhered to by right wing conspiracy theorists who believe the Waco siege and deaths were part of a conspiracy to undermine the Second Amendment. The second theory postulates that federal agents using specialized weapons started the fire that destroyed the Davidian compound.

This incident is what Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh, claimed as the event that caused him to plan and commit his attack on the federal building. McVeigh believed that the Federal government was at fault for the Waco deaths and stated that his attack was retribution for that event. McVeigh was one of the right wing extremists who also believed that the Waco siege was a part of a larger conspiracy to take away guns from the American public.

While these two events have no direct link to the Columbine massacre the underlying CT which connects all three, is the theory that there is a conspiracy against the 2nd Amendment. Following the event in Columbine there was once again a call to ban or restrict gun ownership. The followers of this CT all share a common political identity, right wing conservatism. This extremist faction of followers, such as McVeigh, stand on an anti-government belief system. There is also an extremist left wing faction that mirrors this movement.

Since the 911 attacks the extreme right wing conspiracy theory faction that follows the 2nd Amendment CT, has evolved. The policies of the neo-conservative movement have initiated many ideals that the right wing extremists extol but they have also embraced ideals that the extremists loathe. The neocon embrace of extremist Israeli policies, “Big Brother” surveillance and the expansion of big government has caused the extreme right wing to evolve into Illuminati believers.

Because of this evolution there has been a major increase of interest in the Illuminati, NWO and Bilderberg Group fields of study. Ten years ago there were a small handful of theorists who specialized in Globalist theories. A quick survey of Internet forums today will return a large number of people discussing the Illuminati subjects and it’s my opinion that Illuminati based theories are by far the most discussed online.

Millennial mass hysteria set the stage for the current state of CT affairs. 1999 was a year that saw Y2K fears, uncertainty of what the 2000 elections would bring in America, an out of control division of politics due to Clinton backlash and the emergence of a new electronic economy that was unstable due to the dotcom bubble. This set the stage for the right wing extremist evolution as the Bush war machine was set in motion.

I believe that there is a side benefit to this evolution in that we may see a CT researcher, or group of researchers, attempt to weave an all-encompassing Unified Theory of Conspiracy and the Illuminati studies brings the researcher close to the possibility of a Unified Theory. There are a large number of CT enthusiasts who post to forums who draw upon segments of what could be merged into such a theory but for reasons known only to them, they do not combine this information into something larger.

David Icke may be the most well known of the current CT personalities who does weave a Unifying Theory. What Icke does is present the various facets of such a theory as singular, independent subjects that happen to be connected to a larger, whole theory. This presentation philosophy has what I believe is a serious flaw. If you go to his website there is no cohesive narrative to guide the visitor through his ideas and if you are well versed in his theories you will know that the narrative he provides is loose and each facet seems to lead you to yet one more book he has written that he wants you to buy.

I believe that Icke’s work in CT is invaluable simply from the standpoint that he is a lightning rod to CT studies. In England his name is well known but for the rest of the world those who know of his ideas mostly learn them in snippets. His work is geared more toward the spiritual, which is somewhat unsettling to me as it has a definite overtone of cultism that cannot be shaken regardless if this was unintentional and incidental. To weave together his CT narratives leads the researcher at every point to a spiritual center. The danger in such an approach, as you can guess is that people searching for a spiritual answer to the world’s problems are susceptible to cult programming. Icke has not helped this problem as he once claimed that he is God.

Which leads me back to the dates in question. These dates can be looked at as examples that the CT enthusiast can use for identifying common threads between various theories. There is a strange order that can be found once you begin looking at coincidental connections between events. Identifying patterns is crucial in solving mysteries and linking clues. While the coincidence of these events may be purely accidental, the underlying CT can be found if you look closely at the aftermaths of each event.

The aftermaths of Waco, Oklahoma City and Columbine have only one common thread, the 2nd Amendment theory. Right wing extremists cite the 2nd Amendment theory. Right wing extremists have evolved into Illuminati theorists. The current state of conspiracism revolves around Illuminati theories.